On Sunday Pastor Eric finished our series in 1 Peter by preaching from 1 Peter 5:6-14. This letter has reminded us not to be surprised by suffering. We need to remember that our lives are not out of control, God is guarding us, we are not alone, and this will end well.
This Sunday we complete our study through the letter of 1 Peter. This is a great time to re-read the letter in its entirety and appreciate the ways God is using it to shape us.
Set aside about 30 minutes, pray for the Spirit to prepare your heart, read, and expect the Lord to meet you. We have provided a copy of the letter with no chapter or verse divisions for easy reading.
Take me to the PDF of 1 Peter.
If you want to go above and beyond, check out the video and other resources on 1 Peter provided by The Bible Project.
Our annual Communion Service is two weeks away. We do this once a year on Daylight Savings Sunday. Our morning service is canceled and we gather in the evening for a feast punctuated by the remembrance of the death of Jesus Christ.
1. A helpful focus on a regular practice. We take communion on Sundays more often than not. That regularity can dim its significance. Highlighting it for one evening reminds us what a privilege it is to partake.
2. An opportunity to make new friends. You’ll have an opportunity to sit with people you may not know. You’ll have time to hear their story and share yours. It’s a simple but wonderful way to love your neighbors.
3. It’s good for your soul. God feeds us at the communion table. He has given us the Lord’s Supper as a means of grace to nourish our souls.
4. It only works if you’re there. The church is the people of God. Any of our meetings are only effective when we all come together. Though this disrupts our normal rhythm of Sunday mornings, do all you can to be there with us.
The meal is a potluck. Everyone is contributing. Find out what to bring here and email the church office with any questions.
Bright and early every Tuesday morning a group gathers at our church office to pray. Not everyone can make it, but if you can, we invite you to join us.
We know it’s challenging. You’re tired. You forget it’s happening until it’s too late.
But we want to help. That’s why we’ve set up a text message reminder that goes out on Mondays.
All you have to do is text AMPRAYER to 984-203-6255 and you’ll be added to the list. You can unsubscribe at anytime.
If you want to join us for the prayer meeting, sign up.
If you’re not sure you can join us, sign up.
Even if you know you can’t join us, sign up anyway. It’ll be a sweet reminder that your brothers and sisters are gathering to pray.
Do you shop on Amazon? If so, Amazon will send 0.5% of your qualifying purchases to our Opportunity Fund. It doesn't cost you anything. You just designate our church and use smile.amazon.com.
Our Opportunity Fund is used for strategic projects intended to extend and expand our ministry: church planting, future leader development, new facilities, and global missions.
On Sunday, church member Ben Slabach shared the story of his conversion. We intend for this to be the first of many similar testimonies as we hear the stories of how God has saved the members of Sovereign Grace Church. Here’s what Ben shared:
I love movies. In movies, books, and stories in general, what makes that story interesting is drama and conflict. In my story, there is not much drama or conflict. It’s rather simple, ordinary. And I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.
I grew up in a Christian home, going to church at least 3 times a week, and that’s not including helping with band practice. I never struggled with addiction, was never involved with the wrong crowd, and at no point in my life did I ever question whether or not God was real.
However, in my early 20s, I started to question whether or not I was a genuine Christian. I had all of the external signs of being a Christian, but internally, I still felt dead. I felt no joy in reading my Bible, praying, talking about my faith. Finally, I set aside my pride and talked with my pastor, got saved, and then baptized. But I think I did it for the wrong reason. Selfishly, I wanted a clean conscience – I wanted God to serve me, instead of me serving God.
In 2014, I moved to California. My pride had grown and I didn’t want to confess to anyone my big secret. But God is bigger than my pride. He softened my heart, and I confessed to my brother my hypocritical life of living a Christian life externally, while internally feeling dead. I realized that I wanted to be close enough to Jesus to receive the benefits, but not close enough that it required anything of me.1 In Matthew 19, the rich young man comes to Jesus and asks how to have eternal life. Like this young man, I too thought I had kept all of God’s commandments, yet something was missing. Jesus says to him, “Sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” I did not treasure Christ. I believed in him. But I did not follow him. It was then that I started truly following him.
Perhaps your testimony looks like mine: simple, ordinary. I think that’s okay. It’s less about what God saved us from, and more about that God saved us. We can all agree that is grace worth celebrating.
At Sovereign Grace Church we practice church membership as a way to express both our unity with and commitment to Christ’s church. He has saved us and made us part of his body. We walk out our Christian lives in the context of a local church.
Our membership process is straightforward. It involves meeting with a pastor, completing our online membership class, an interview, and public recognition on a Sunday.
If you’re a guest who wants to know more about membership at our church, head here to get started.
On Sunday Pastor Dustin preached from Isaiah 6:1-8. Our greatest need when we gather as a church is to have genuine encounters with God. How do we know when this happens? We walk away amazed, humbled, forgiven, and sent.